Royal Rumble (2004)
Royal Rumble (2004) was the 17th annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It took place on January 25, 2004, at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and featured talent from the Raw and SmackDown! brands. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a championship match at that year's WrestleMania, in this instance WrestleMania XX. Beginning with this Royal Rumble, the winner could challenge at WrestleMania his choice of either the WWE Championship or the World Heavyweight Championship. Six professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's supercard, a scheduling of more than one main event. The main event was the annual 30-man Royal Rumble match, which featured wrestlers from both brands. Chris Benoit, the first entrant, won the match by last eliminating The Big Show, the twenty-fourth entrant. This win resulted in Benoit breaking the longevity record last held by Bob Backlund, staying in the match for over one hour, but was then broken by Rey Mysterio in 2006. The primary match on the Raw brand was a Last Man Standing match between Triple H and Shawn Michaels for the World Heavyweight Championship, which ended in a draw. The predominant match on the SmackDown! brand was Brock Lesnar versus Hardcore Holly for the WWE Championship, which Lesnar won to retain the championship. The featured match on the undercard was a Tables match for the World Tag Team Championship between Evolution (Ric Flair and Batista) and the Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley), which Evolution won to retain the titles. Production Background The buildup to the Royal Rumble match started on the January 1, 2004, episode of SmackDown, when John Cena interrupted a promo of the SmackDown General Manager Paul Heyman about Tribute to the Troops event in Iraq. This angered Heyman and Heyman forced Cena to compete in a handicap match with a partner and the two needed to win the match to gain entry in the Royal Rumble match. Cena's partner was revealed to be Chris Benoit and the two defeated The Full Blooded Italians (Nunzio, Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli) to qualify for the Royal Rumble match. As a result, all the three members of Full Blooded Italians lost their spots in the Royal Rumble match;had Cena and Benoit would have lost, neither would have been able to participate in the match. After the match, Kurt Angle announced that he would participate in the Royal Rumble match and would win it. Later that night, Benoit insulted Heyman and Heyman forced Benoit to compete at the #1 spot in the Royal Rumble. On January 5, Kane announced that he was going to win the Royal Rumble but was confronted by Booker T, who claimed that he would eliminate Kane from the match and win the match. Three days later on SmackDown, Benoit defeated the Full Blooded Italians in a handicap mini Royal Rumble to retain his spot in the Royal Rumble. Goldberg defeated Matt Hardy and announced that he would participate in the Royal Rumble match on January 12. On the January 15 episode of SmackDown, several qualifying matches were held for the Royal Rumble, including a battle royal between Full Blooded Italians, which Nunzio won. On January 19, Goldberg, Randy Orton, Rob Van Dam, Booker T, Mark Henry and Chris Jericho won matches to qualify for a Battle Royal to determine the #30 entrant of the Royal Rumble match. Goldberg won the match and earned the #30 spot in the Royal Rumble. Storylines The professional wrestling matches at Royal Rumble featured professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Storylines between the characters were produced on WWE's weekly television shows Raw and SmackDown! with the Raw and SmackDown! brands—storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its employees to different programs. The main rivalry heading into the event from the SmackDown brand was between Brock Lesnar and Hardcore Holly over the WWE Championship. The rivalry could be dated back to September 12, 2002, episode of SmackDown, when Lesnar defeated Holly in a non-title match and injured him by breaking his neck, putting him out of action for over a year. A year later, at Survivor Series, Holly returned to WWE from injury to take revenge from Lesnar. On SmackDown, on December 18, Heyman announced that Holly would team with Shannon Moore in a tag team match against A-Train and Matt Morgan, in which Holly could get a match of his choosing if he won but if he lost, his WWE contract would be terminated. Holly and Moore won the match, allowing Holly to wrestle a match of his choosing. On the January 1 episode of SmackDown, Holly intentionally got disqualified in a match against Big Show by brutally assaulting him. On the January 8 episode of SmackDown, Holly defeated Big Show in a street fight. As a result, Big Show placed a restraining order on Holly and Lesnar stayed with Big Show to protect himself from Holly. On the January 22 episode of SmackDown, Holly attacked Lesnar during a handicap match pitting Lesnar, Big Show, Matt Morgan and Rhyno against John Cena and Chris Benoit. This led to a match between Lesnar and Holly for the WWE Championship at Royal Rumble. The main rivalry heading into the event from the Raw brand was between Triple H and Shawn Michaels over the World Heavyweight Championship. At Armageddon, Triple H defeated Goldberg and Kane in a triple threat match to win the World Heavyweight Championship after interference from Evolution (Ric Flair and Batista). On the December 15 episode of Raw, Michaels and Rob Van Dam defeated Evolution (Triple H, Ric Flair and Batista) in a handicap match, when Michaels pinned Triple H. As a result, Michaels earned a World Heavyweight Championship match against Triple H on the December 20 episode of Raw in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. Michaels seemingly defeated Triple H to win the title, but the Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff declared the match a draw due to both men's shoulders being down on the mat during the pinfall. As a result, Triple H retained the title. On the January 5 episode of Raw, the self-proclaimed Sheriff of Raw Stone Cold Steve Austin announced that Triple H would defend the title against Michaels in a Last Man Standing match at Royal Rumble. A secondary rivalry heading into the event from the SmackDown brand was between Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero. At Survivor Series, Basham Brothers (Doug and Danny) defeated Los Guerreros (Eddie and Chavo) to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship. After the event, Los Guerreros started to break up as a team when Chavo began blaming Eddie for the team's recent failure. On the November 20 episode of SmackDown, Los Guerreros defeated World's Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin) but after the match, Haas and Benjamin attacked Chavo and injured his leg. This caused Chavo to blame Eddie for the injury. On the November 27 episode of SmackDown, Chavo was attacked again and he blamed Eddie again. This continued on the December 4 episode of SmackDown, when Eddie helped Chavo in defeating Benjamin in a one-on-one match. Chavo blamed Eddie for stealing the spotlight that Chavo needed. On January 1, on SmackDown, Eddie and Chavo finally broke up the team after losing to World's Greatest Tag Team. However, on the January 8 episode of SmackDown, Kurt Angle reunited Los Guerreros and earned them a Tag Team Championship match against Basham Brothers, which Los Guerreros lost. After the match, Los Guerreros finally ended when Chavo attacked Eddie and caused him to bleed. As a result, Chavo became a villain. On the January 15 episode of SmackDown, Angle informed Eddie that the SmackDown General Manager Paul Heyman had made a match between Eddie and Chavo at Royal Rumble. Another secondary rivalry heading into the event from the SmackDown brand was between Rey Mysterio and Jamie Noble over the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. On January 1, Mysterio defeated Tajiri to win the Cruiserweight Championship. The following week, Tajiri and Noble were scheduled to have a number one contender's match for the Cruiserweight Championship, but Noble was not present on the show. As a result, the SmackDown General Manager Paul Heyman ordered Noble's manager Nidia to replace Noble in the match. Tajiri easily defeated Nidia. After the match, Tajiri tried to assault Nidia, but Mysterio rescued her. This prompted Noble to come out and attack Mysterio as he thought that Mysterio was trying to harm Nidia. On the January 15 episode of SmackDown, Noble defeated Tajiri to become the number one contender for the Cruiserweight Championship at Royal Rumble. The secondary rivalry heading into the event from the Raw brand was between Evolution (Ric Flair and Batista) and Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) over the World Tag Team Championship. At Armageddon, Flair and Batista defeated Dudley Boyz in a Tag Team Turmoil match to win the Tag Team Championship. On December 29 on Raw, Flair served as the special referee during a match pitting Dudley Boyz against two enhancement talents. Flair awarded the victory to enhancement talents by disqualifying Dudley Boyz. Batista then came out and attacked Dudley Boyz from behind. On the January 5 episode of Raw, Flair and Batista defeated Dudley Boyz to retain the Tag Team Championship. The next week on Raw, Batista defeated D-Von in a one-on-one match. After the match, Flair tossed a table into the ring and Batista set it up but Bubba Ray entered the ring and chased Flair and Batista. On January 19, on Raw, Evolution member Randy Orton defeated The Hurricane in a match. After the match, Flair and Batista came out to congratulate Orton. Hurricane's tag team partner Rosey came out to check on him but was attacked by Batista. It led to Dudley Boyz coming out to deliver a 3-D on Flair through the table but Jonathan Coachman ran down to stop them and was hit with a 3D on the table by Dudley Boyz. This led to a Tables match between Dudley Boyz and Evolution for the Tag Team Championship at Royal Rumble. Aftermath On the following night's episode of Raw, during a confrontation at the beginning of the program between Triple H and Shawn Michaels, the Raw Sheriff Stone Cold Steve Austin intervened and announced that even though he could not make a match between the two (Austin having lost his General Manager powers in November 2003), he would "uphold the law" and announced that Michaels would not get the next shot at Triple H because he did not win the Royal Rumble. Austin revealed that the Royal Rumble winner face "the champion" at WrestleMania, but that there was no specification as to which champion— thus, creating a loophole that Chris Benoit, who was then property of SmackDown, exploited to announce that he would instead chase the World Heavyweight Championship due in part to bad feelings between himself and his general manager, Paul Heyman. On February 9, Benoit and Triple H were to have their contract signing for the WrestleMania match, but Michaels interfered and hit Sweet Chin Music on Benoit then signed the contract himself. The following week, Austin announced that Triple H would defend the title against Benoit and Michaels in a Triple Threat match at WrestleMania. At WrestleMania XX, Benoit defeated Michaels and Triple H in a Triple Threat match to win the World Heavyweight Championship. Benoit's defection led to a rule change for the Rumble winner, where he could now choose which world champion he would face at WrestleMania. Impact of Benoit tragedy Chris Benoit murdered his wife and son before committing suicide over the weekend of June 22–24, 2007. Once the details of Benoit's actions became apparent, WWE made the decision to remove nearly all mentions of Benoit from their website and from future broadcasts. As a result, this Royal Rumble and Benoit's victory is often ignored in official publications. When referring to the #1 entrant, WWE personalities will occasionally state, for instance, "two people have won from the number one position, including Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels in 1995", as commentator JBL did in 2015. WWE coverage of the Rumble has been very selective; no photos of Benoit exist on WWE's web-page for the event, focusing rather on the Last Man Standing match between Triple H and Shawn Michaels, and Benoit is only mentioned on the results page as the winner of the event. Only a few WWE video features include footage from the Royal Rumble match, but those that do use careful shot selection so that Benoit is not seen on screen. WWE's website has also posted photo galleries dedicated to the number one entrants and winners in the Royal Rumble history, both of which completely ignore Chris Benoit and the year of 2004. The pay-per-view and the Royal Rumble match exist in their entirety on the WWE Network unedited. Results Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * Royal Rumble Category:Royal Rumble Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events Category:2004 Pay-Per-View Events